Auditory sustained attention is a marker of unilateral spatial neglect.
The relationships between performance on a non-spatially-lateralized measure of sustained attention and spatial bias on tests sensitive to unilateral neglect were considered in a group of 44 patients with right hemisphere lesions following stroke. As predicted from earlier studies showing a strong association between unilateral spatial neglect and sustained attention, performance on a brief and monotonous tone-counting measure formed a significant predictor of spatial bias across a variety of measures of unilateral visual neglect. This study provides further evidence for a very close link between two attentional systems hitherto regarded as being quite separate, namely a spatial attention system implicated in unilateral neglect and a sustained attention system. A close connection between these two systems was predicted by Posner, who argued that the right hemisphere-dominant sustained attention system provides a strong modulatory influence on the functioning of the lateralized posterior attention system.
Robertson
I H
IH
MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, U.K. ian.robertson@mrc-apu.cam.ac.uk
Manly
T
T
Beschin
N
N
Daini
R
R
Haeske-Dewick
H
H
Hömberg
V
V
Jehkonen
M
M
Pizzamiglio
G
G
Shiel
A
A
Weber
E
E
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology
D015415:Biomarkers